The present invention relates to a leading-edge shield for a turbomachine blade. The term “turbomachine” is used in this context to mean any machine in which energy can be transferred between a fluid flow and at least one set of blades, e.g. such as a compressor, a pump, a turbine, a propeller, or indeed a combination of at least two of the above.
Such leading-edge shields are typically for protecting the leading edges of rotating blades or of guide vanes against impacts. The term “blades” is used in this context both for fan blades and for the blades of an aircraft propeller. In order to limit their weight, such blades are typically mainly in the form of a blade body made of organic matrix composite material, e.g. a polymer, reinforced by fibers. Although such materials present mechanical qualities that are generally very favorable, in particular compared with their weight, they are nevertheless somewhat sensitive to point impacts. Shields, typically made of very strong metal material such as titanium alloys, are thus normally installed on the leading edges of such blades, in order to protect them against such impacts. Such shields are normally in the form of a thin pressure-side wing and a thin suction-side wing joined together by a thicker section overlying the leading edge, the wings and the thicker section fitting closely to the shape of the blade on the leading edge and on the adjacent pressure-side and suction-side sections. The pressure-side and suction-side wings extend along a height and along a length respectively over these pressure-side and suction-side sections of the blade, they serve mainly to ensure that the shield is positioned and fastened on the leading edge, and they also serve to distribute the force of an impact and to dissipate its energy over a larger area of the blade body. Thus, in the event of an impact on the leading-edge shield, waves of distortion spread through the shield, including the wings, until those waves have been entirely dissipated. However, in some circumstances, that spreading may create peaks of distortion that may cause a wing to become partly separated.